[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2432 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2432

To amend the Paperwork Reduction Act and titles 5 and 31, United States 
      Code, to reform Federal paperwork and regulatory processes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 11, 2003

Mr. Ose (for himself, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Tom Davis of Virginia, Mr. Moore, 
 Mr. Janklow, Mr. Matheson, and Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government 
Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to 
      be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Paperwork Reduction Act and titles 5 and 31, United States 
      Code, to reform Federal paperwork and regulatory processes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Paperwork and Regulatory 
Improvements Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 1980, in the Paperwork Reduction Act, Congress 
        established the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs 
        (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget. OIRA's principal 
        responsibility is to reduce the paperwork burden on the public 
        that results from the collection of information by or for the 
        Federal Government. In 2002, OIRA estimated that the paperwork 
        burden imposed on the public was 7.7 billion hours, at a cost 
        of $230 billion. The Internal Revenue Service accounted for 83 
        percent of the paperwork burden.
            (2) In 1995, Congress amended the Paperwork Reduction Act 
        and established annual governmentwide paperwork reduction goals 
        of 10 percent for each of fiscal years 1996 and 1997, and 5 
        percent for each of fiscal years 1998 through 2001, but the 
        paperwork burden increased, rather than decreased, in each of 
        those fiscal years and fiscal year 2002. Both the Office of 
        Management and Budget and the Internal Revenue Service need to 
        devote additional attention to paperwork reduction.
            (3) In 2002, the House Report accompanying the Treasury and 
        General Government Appropriations Act, 2003 (House Report 107-
        575) stated, ``The Office of Management and Budget has reported 
        that paperwork burdens on Americans have increased in each of 
        the last six years. Since the Internal Revenue Service imposes 
        over 80 percent of these paperwork burdens, the Committee 
        believes that OMB should work to identify and review proposed 
        and existing IRS paperwork.''.
            (4) One key to success in paperwork reduction is the Office 
        of Management and Budget's systematic review of every new and 
        revised agency paperwork proposal. Recent statutory exemptions 
        from that office's review responsibility, especially those 
        without any stated justification, should be removed.
            (5) In 2000, researchers Mark Crain of George Mason 
        University and Thomas Hopkins of the Rochester Institute of 
        Technology, in their October 2001 publication titled ``The 
        Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms'', estimated that 
        Americans spend $843 billion annually to comply with Federal 
        regulations. Congress has a responsibility to review major 
        rules (as defined by section 804 of title 5, United States 
        Code) proposed by agencies, especially regulatory alternatives 
        and the costs and benefits associated with each of them. In 
        2000, in the Truth in Regulating Act, Congress established new 
        responsibility within the General Accounting Office to assist 
        Congress with this responsibility.
            (6) In 1996, because of the increasing costs and 
        incompletely estimated benefits of Federal rules and paperwork, 
        Congress required the Office of Management and Budget for the 
        first time to submit an annual report to Congress on the total 
        costs and benefits to the public of Federal rules and paperwork 
        requirements, including an assessment of the effects of Federal 
        rules on the private sector and State and local governments. In 
        1998, Congress changed the annual report's due date to coincide 
        with the due date of the President's budget, so that Congress 
        and the public could be given an opportunity to simultaneously 
        review both the on-budget and off-budget costs associated with 
        the regulatory and paperwork requirements of each Federal 
        agency. In 2000, Congress made this a permanent annual 
        reporting requirement.
            (7) The Office of Management and Budget requires agencies 
        to submit annual budget and paperwork burden estimates in order 
        to prepare certain required reports for Congress, but it does 
        not require agencies to submit estimates on costs and benefits 
        of agency rules and paperwork. The Office of Management and 
        Budget needs to require agencies to submit such estimates on 
        costs and benefits to help prepare the annual accounting 
        statement and associated report required under section 624 of 
        the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2001.

SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF TAX PAPERWORK.

    Section 3504 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(i) In carrying out subsection (c)(3), the Director shall assign, 
at a minimum, the equivalent of at least 2 fulltime staffers to review 
the Federal information collection burden on the public imposed by the 
Internal Revenue Service.''.

SEC. 4. REPEAL OF EXEMPTIONS FROM PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT, ETC.

    The following provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment 
Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-171) are repealed:
            (1) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 1601(c)(2).
            (2) Section 1601(c)(3).
            (3) Section 2702(b)(1)(A).
            (4) Section 2702(b)(2)(A).
            (5) Section 2702(c).
            (6) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 6103(b)(2).
            (7) Section 6103(b)(3).
            (8) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 10105(d)(2).
            (9) Section 10105(d)(3).

SEC. 5. AMENDMENT OF TRUTH IN REGULATING ACT TO MAKE PERMANENT PILOT 
              PROJECT FOR REPORT ON RULES.

    The purpose of this section is to make permanent the authority to 
request the performance of regulatory analysis to enhance Congressional 
responsibility for regulatory decisions developed under the laws 
enacted by Congress. The Truth in Regulating Act of 2000 (Public Law 
106-312; 5 U.S.C. 801 note) is amended--
            (1) in the heading for section 4, by striking ``pilot 
        project for'';
            (2) by striking section 5 and redesignating section 6 as 
        section 5; and
            (3) in section 5 (as redesignated by paragraph (2))--
                    (A) in the heading, by striking ``and duration of 
                pilot project'';
                    (B) in subsection (a), by striking ``(a) Effective 
                Date.--''; and
                    (C) by striking subsections (b) and (c).

SEC. 6. IMPROVED REGULATORY ACCOUNTING.

    (a) Requirement for Agencies To Submit Information on Regulations 
and Paperwork to OMB.--Section 624 of the Treasury and General 
Government Appropriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 
106-554; 114 Stat. 2763A-161), is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), and (d) as 
        subsections (e), (f), and (g), respectively, and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(b) Agency Submissions to OMB.--To carry out subsection (a), the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall require each 
agency annually to submit to the Office of Management and Budget an 
estimate of the total annual costs and benefits of Federal rules and 
paperwork--
            ``(1) for the agency in the aggregate; and
            ``(2) for each agency program.''.
    (b) Requirement for OMB Accounting Statement To Cover Same Years 
Covered by Budget.--Section 624 of the Treasury and General Government 
Appropriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106-554; 
114 Stat. 2763A-161), is further amended by inserting after subsection 
(b), as added by subsection (a), the following new subsection:
    ``(c) Years Covered by Accounting Statement.--Each accounting 
statement submitted under this section shall, at a minimum--
            ``(1) cover the fiscal year for which the statement is 
        submitted and each of the 4 fiscal years after that fiscal 
        year; and
            ``(2) cover the current fiscal year and the fiscal year 
        prior to the current fiscal year.''.
    (c) Integration of OMB Accounting Statement and Report Into 
President's Budget.--Section 624 of the Treasury and General Government 
Appropriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106-554; 
114 Stat. 2763A-161) is further amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``with the budget'' and 
        inserting ``as part of the budget''; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c), as added by 
        subsection (b), the following new subsection:
    ``(d) Form of Submission.--The accounting statement and associated 
report required by subsection (a) shall be included in the budget 
documents submitted under section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, 
in a form that allows direct comparison of the budget for activities 
and functions of the Government with the costs and benefits to the 
public of Federal rules and paperwork associated with those activities 
and functions.''.
    (d) Pilot Projects for Regulatory Budgeting.--(1) Chapter 11 of 
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section:
``Sec. 1120 Pilot projects for regulatory budgeting
    ``(a) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, after 
consultation with the head of each agency, shall designate not less 
than five agencies as pilot projects in regulatory budgeting for fiscal 
years 2006 and 2007. The designated agencies shall reflect a 
representative range of Federal regulatory programs, and shall include 
at least the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation, and 
the Environmental Protection Agency.
    ``(b) Pilot projects in the designated agencies shall cover the 
preparation of regulatory budgets. Such budgets shall present, for one 
or more of the major regulatory programs of the agency, the varying 
levels of costs and benefits to the public that would result from 
different budgeted amounts.
    ``(c) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall 
include, as an alternative budget presentation in the budget submitted 
under section 1105 for fiscal year 2007, the regulatory budgets of the 
designated agencies for that fiscal year.
    ``(d) No later than the first Monday in February of 2009, the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall transmit to the 
President and to Congress a report on the regulatory budgeting pilot 
projects. The report shall--
            ``(1) assess the feasibility and advisability of including 
        a regulatory budget as part of the annual budget submitted 
        under section 1105;
            ``(2) describe any difficulties encountered by the pilot 
        agencies in preparing a regulatory budget; and
            ``(3) recommend whether legislation requiring regulatory 
        budgets should be proposed and the general provisions of any 
        legislation.
    ``(e) After receipt of the report required under subsection (d), 
Congress may specify that a regulatory budget be submitted as part of 
the annual budget submitted under section 1105.''.
    (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is 
amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``1120. Pilot projects for regulatory budgeting.''.
                                 <all>